Crashing at transitions, This may help- New PWC v2- Beta

Post by **Jehannum** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 6:21 pm

This may or may not help. If you want to try it, please do so and let me know if it helps or not. I made a new PWC this morning and noticed the file size was slightly different by a few KB. Something may have gone wrong with the 1st pwc generation.

this is a test pwc made in hopes of reducing the crashes at area transitions. Please keep a copy of your old PWC in a location other than your Neverwinter Nights 2\pwc folder in the event that it makes things worse, rather than better.

Remember: You can only have 1 of the files at a time in your My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\pwc folder.

Cear v2.pwc uncompressed file size: this is a test pwc made in hopes of reducing the crashes at area transitions. Please keep a copy of your old PWC in a location other than your Neverwinter Nights 2\pwc folder in the event that it makes things worse, rather than better.

Remember: You can only have 1 of the files at a time in your My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\pwc folder.

Cear v2.pwc uncompressed file size: 125 MB (131,595,297 bytes)

This is a PWC file that is required to play on Dasaria 2.

Please check for regular PWC updates on the forums at http://www.dasaria.net/forums

Important note: the correct version of this file is required to play.

To Install:

Extract the Cear v2.pwc file and copy it into your: My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\pwc folder.

Direct connect to Dasaria 2: dasaria.dyndns-server.com

http://files.filefront.com/Cear_v2_test ... einfo.html

Zephis · Post by **Zephis** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 6:26 pm

Well i'm downloading it now, I'll let you know how it goes

Forlorn · Post by **Forlorn** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 7:23 pm

Could the crashing stem from having two Dasaria PWC files in the PWC folder? When v2 came out, I unzipped it into the pwc folder but never deleted the v1 version, so both v1 and v2 were in there. So maybe it crashes cause during the loading it may have got confused on which one to load. I also noticed that before v2, I didn't crash nearly as much as after v2. In either case, this is just a hypothesis. I have deleted both v1 and v2 and am using the v2 test right now...we'll see how it goes.

Trinn · Post by **Trinn** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 7:29 pm

I'm slightly confused.

Can we use either the current v2 pwc or this updated one?

I just note you say keep the current v2 pwc somewhere safe in case this one makes things worse, so I'm assuming I can just swap them over when needed?

but you also mention the correct version is needed to play? 8/

Starkwold · Post by **Starkwold** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 7:33 pm

Take your old Cear v2.pwc and put it in another folder some where, maybe "Cear v2 Back-up" in your My Documents Folder.

Then take THIS Cear v2, and put it in your PWC folder. If it fixes things, then keep it! If it makes things worse, delete it, and re-move your old PWC back into place.

Forlorn · Post by **Forlorn** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 7:38 pm

The test version didn't help, I crashed right away exiting from the herbalist's store. Gonna put the v2 back now.

Zephis · Post by **Zephis** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 8:11 pm

as for me.. i crashed just loading the module...

Forlorn · Post by **Forlorn** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 8:27 pm

Guys, I think I know why we're crashing now. I went over to Highlands Black Dawn and went in and out of a few of the shops like 20 times in a row and didn't crash once. I believe the problem is Dasaria related. Black Dawn is a small server, and their areas don't have much content. Theres even no music or sound. Therefore, its much more stable. Dasaria on the other hand, is huge. Not in terms of number of areas, but in terms of content per area. I think is is an obsidian mistake. NWN 2 online can't handle that much content as of now cause its still in its early stages and very buggy. I remember this happened to NWN 1 as well. I used to play on frontier a few weeks ago and didn't crash that much on their server either. So, I don't think theres anything anyone can do right now except wait for obsidian to fix these bugs. I hope 1.03 will, but if not, we'll just all have to be patient.

Post by **Jehannum** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 9:12 pm

You can use either one to play.

By saying that you need the correct version to play, I meant that you must have either the original or the beta version of the cear v2.pwc to play.

It wont matter if you have the old PWC in your folder or not, as that file is cear v1.pwc and is ignored by our server right now.

Well, maybe it will help some people though it is apparently not the big answer.

Greyshore · Post by **Greyshore** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 9:48 pm

Forlorn, that might be indeed the reason. Here is a quote of the new beta patch notes:

• The game would crash when a module with more than 16,000 objects was loaded.

I suppose it's the same for persistent worlds? Maybe I'm just putting too much faith on the new patch but I believe that these problems such as crashing should be taken care of after the new patch is released.

Then again...maybe not.

Ludovic · Post by **Ludovic** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 10:21 pm

I don't know, one of their senior programmers said he was looking at servers crashing, not client crashing.

So they might fix server stability before they fix the client crash when loading large areas. It clearly hangs when you move in and out of large areas so that means it's a memory issue. We'll have to wait. I hope they fix it as I don't exactly have the capital at the moment to finance an investment in 4GB of RAM. : P

Tinuvhiell · Post by **Tinuvhiell** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 5:12 pm

I don't even think my computer could HOLD 4 gigs of ram.

Eisenfaust · Post by **Eisenfaust** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 5:59 pm

I really wouldn't bother trying to find work arounds to this issue. Anything causing the client to crash on this many peoples systems is a problem for Obsidian programmers to deal with. Regardless of whether or not the problem only seems to happen while connected to dasaria the client should NOT crash under any circumstance (unless the client computer is experiencing general stability issues).

From what I've seen the problem always happens between phase 1 and phase 2 updates. I would guess that there is some sort of race condition in the code that handles the synchronization of client/server data. When server population is high the synchronization probably takes longer and the client is probably failing to finish updating its data before the servers data changes.

If you wanted to check this out, you could try setting the server limit to 5 and verify that the problem never occurs.

ScottWAR · Post by **ScottWAR** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 6:35 pm

I almost never crash when the server cap is set at 25. I also notice that when the server cap is 25, and the server is full, if I am trying to connect, it takes FAR longer for a spot to open up, than it does when the server is full with a higher cap. This makes me think when the server is set at 25 crashes are not happening nearly as often, which is why it takes so long for a spot to open up, and when the server cap is higher almost everyone is crashing more frequently, which is why spots open up so often. SO it seems it is definately related to te number of people on the server.

Post by **Jehannum** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 6:55 pm

I tend to agree with you Eisen. I am hoping that the new patch will be a boon for us.

Last night I played with the new PWC and I only crashed once and the server was around 30-35. Maybe it was luck, we can only geuss.